Jumia

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Full Text of Saraki’s speech at 10th Abuja Housing Show

First of all, let me thank the organisers of this
well-thought out event, Chief (Senator) Osita Izunaso — the Chairman of Fesadeb
Media Group, and Mr. Festus Adebayo — the Coordinator of the 10th Abuja Housing
Show, for their foresight in spearheading this essential gathering, and for
their tenacity in ensuring the continuity of this series to its 10th year.

Let me also commend all the stakeholders from the Housing,
Construction and Development Sector that have congregated here today – the
executives of housing corporations; technical representatives from educational and
research institutions; financiers from primary mortgage banks; the media; and
all other concerned participants.

Before I begin, I would like to convey the Greetings and
Goodwill of the 8th National Assembly and the Senate of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria to this convention.

The Abuja Housing Show is another enlightening and
enterprising example that showcases the importance of property ownership in the
developmental cycle.

As articles 2 and 17 of the United Nation’s Universal
Declaration of Human Rights classifies “the right to property” and “the right
to own property” as fundamental human rights to all people – as the government
of the day, it is important that we work towards the attainment of access to
affordable housing for all Nigerians.

In view of the fact that the ownership of land and housing
is often determined by social and economic factors, at the 8th Senate, we are
working to level the playing field for all citizens by implementing the
recommendations of the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable
(NASSBER), that highlights numerous clauses and provisions in a handful of
bills that affect property rights, access to land, multiple taxation, and
access to credit to facilitate the purchase of landed property.

On the social end, through the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill which was
re-introduced and has passed first reading in the Senate, we are addressing
Nigeria’s traditional inheritance laws to pave the way for more women to be
able to acquire property.

Additionally, just last week the Discrimination Against
Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Bill passed its 3rd and Final Reading
at the Senate. With this Bill in place, there will be better regulation of our
building codes that will enable the access to more infrastructure of Nigerians
with disabilities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the aforementioned are some of the key
areas that we have touched on for the Housing Sector over the past year.
However, we acknowledge that with the input of the stakeholders here present,
we can accomplish a lot more by coming up with more detailed and multi-faceted
framework that addresses the loopholes that exist in the sector.

With an estimated housing deficit of 17 million units, it is
important that the National Assembly; the Executive – through the Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing; and

those that operate at the business end in the housing sector
— the architects, engineers, construction companies, and developers, work in
sync to develop a policy and legislative blueprint that will help Nigeria to
tackle the looming housing crisis.

In order to ensure the standards of buildings being
developed for the citizenry, I will be asking the Senate Committee on Lands and
Housing to work on strengthening their oversight of the agencies of
government that are tasked with making sure that building codes are adhered to.

As we do all of this, we must all remember that due to the
decimation that has occurred in the North East, and the under-development of
pockets of the Niger Delta, many of our citizens still do not have access to
clean and safe shelter. In this regard, I challenge everyone here to work in
collaboration with the Senate, the National Assembly as a whole, and the
Federal Government to come up with effective and innovative solutions of
addressing these two key issues.

From the displays that I have seen today, I have no doubt in
my mind that we are on the right track in
securing the issue of Shelter in not only Abuja, but in Nigeria as a whole. I
even expect that we can impact the entire West African region in the provision
of quality, safe, environmentally friendly, affordable housing solutions for
all.

Working together, we can truly build a Nigeria that our
children and we can be proud of.

1 comment:

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